Wireless communication networks typically include wireless communication devices which, via access nodes, communicate over wireless links with further communication networks, equipment, and destinations. In many examples of wireless communication systems, the access nodes usually come in different varieties to serve differently sized geographic areas or provide communication services to a different number of wireless communication devices. In typical examples, a macrocell access node can serve a large geographic area and handle a large number of simultaneous wireless communication device sessions, such as a part of a metro-wide wireless communication network of a communication service provider. A femtocell access node typically serves a smaller geographic area—many times limited to an office or house—and can be a consumer device able to be installed and easily moved by an end user. Also, a femtocell typically handles a much smaller number of simultaneous wireless communication device sessions than a macrocell.
In many examples, access nodes use various identifiers associated with each access node in the transfer of communications with wireless communication devices. These identifiers could be pseudorandom number or pseudorandom noise (PN) codes to allow energy associated with communications transferred by access nodes to be spread over a larger signal bandwidth, for enhanced security, and for other reasons. In typical examples of macrocells, many identifiers are distributed across a large geographic area and geographically adjacent macrocells do not use similar identifiers to avoid interference. However, in many examples of smaller access nodes, such as femtocells, some identifiers are shared by many other femtocells and a small geographic location may contain femtocells with similar associated identifiers. Due to the non-unique usage of the identifiers by certain types of access nodes, communication sessions many times cannot be handed off successfully between the access nodes, leading to dropped calls and a poor user experience.